Colcannon

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm not a bit fan of tinting food green, so today I've made colcannon, a very traditional Irish dish that is usually made with cabbage. This version, however, contains dinosaur kale; I found it in Irish Traditional Cooking, a book my husband's parents brought back from their trip to Ireland. I inevitably dust off the cookbook when March rolls around and resolve to cook from it more often. As you can imagine, there's a whole chapter on potatoes, and many, many sweet anecdotes about where the recipe comes from or when it's traditionally served.

I peeled 2 medium potatoes and cut them into medium-sized pieces. I put them in a saucepan, covered them with water and brought the water to a boil. Simmered the potatoes until tender. In the meantime, I brought a big pot of water to a boil and cooked about 10 leaves of kale (I removed the tough center rib first) until tender. When the potatoes were done, I drained them then returned them to the hot saucepan, letting the moisture steam out. Mashed with a masher, adding salt, pepper, butter and warm milk to make a thick puree. When the kale was done, I drained and squeezed dry, then chopped. Mixed that into the potatoes, then served with sausages.